Page 10 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood (A Paranormal Halloween #5)

“You both graduated extremely early.”

“We had nearly three years of college credits by the time we finished high school, and Ruby’s dad managed to get us into some of the post-grad classes before we had our degrees.”

She’d been allowed to use an electric scooter to move between classes, he knew, but there seemed no reason to bring it up. It had made her different, and she was ready to stop being seen as… a cripple? He hated to see that word in her mind.

“Why not choose a college with a strong chess team?”

“I was already well known in the chess world. It worked better for me to remain an individual, rather than being part of a team.” She rolled her eyes.

“And Ruby and I wanted to go to the same college. We were both looking at a law degree, and Vandy is near the top. Her dad is alumni, and he made things so much easier for both of us.”

The server brought her meal — a Monte Cristo sandwich with a side of cheese sticks, and some steamed broccoli with a small container she dipped her broccoli into.

He peeked into her memory to see that she’d ordered blue cheese dressing along with her broccoli, and he filed the information away.

He knew she wasn’t seeing anyone, but he wanted to talk to her about the single boyfriend she’d had, so he asked, “I don’t see any recent dating activity?”

She put the sandwich down and met his gaze.

“I’ve been waiting for you. I had one boyfriend throughout my last two-and-a-half years of high school, but it was a long-distance thing.

Mostly, I kept him around so I could say I was dating someone.

He was a great friend, we texted and talked all the time, but we so rarely saw each other, it couldn’t get… you know… intimate.”

“You were so certain I’d arrive once you were ready for me?”

She met his gaze. “When were you planning to come?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure you’re ready to hear that, and I promised not to lie to you.”

He’d wanted her to be sexually experienced before he arrived, because she’d never again have the opportunity to explore from that point forward.

Which was fucked up, because he’d have ripped the head from whoever had despoiled her.

And now? She was a virgin, which pleased him, but it meant she would only, ever , have sex with him. No other experiences.

“When I hit some kind of milestone?” she asked. “Or was there a certain age?”

“One of those, yes.”

She shook her head at him. “No one else interested me. Not with you in my dreams.”

“But I’d faded from them, yes? Until your knee replacement surgery?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Dr. Woods helped me a great deal as a teen. I didn’t want to go to him back then, but my parents insisted, and he wasn’t so bad, once I gave him a chance.”

She ate some broccoli. Swallowed. “When I realized I was having some identity stuff going on after surgery, I figured it couldn’t hurt to talk to him.

I mean, I probably could’ve journaled my thoughts and had similar results, but I guess then you wouldn’t have been alerted that I need you now , instead of whenever it was you were planning to come. ”

She was giving him a lot. He searched for something he could share, in return. “I’d engendered a relationship with the head vampire here, but there was a change in leadership a few years ago.”

He frowned, because Etta could be a real problem.

“The second most powerful vampire in the area isn’t my biggest fan, so I was trying to figure out a way in, after the change in power.

Thanks to your psychiatrist, my boss got me permission to come for a few days, and I’ve wrangled that into a few weeks, with a conversation at that time about a longer stay.

If I can’t get permission, the closest I’ll be to you would be either Florida or Louisiana. ”

“We need to figure out in a few weeks if there’s enough between us for me to move, is that what you’re saying?”

It was good she might be open to it, but he hoped it wasn’t necessary. Her life was here. Her parents. Ruby.

“Not necessarily. I believe I’ll be able to negotiate with the current boss, but it isn’t a sure thing.”

“Head vampire? Permission? Is it more like Sookie Stackhouse, or Anita Blake?”

He couldn’t help his smile. “There isn’t much difference between the two.

In reality, most Master Vampires are more sane than the fictionalized versions.

So, more like Eric and Jean Claude, less like Russell Edgington and Nikolaos, though our world also has plenty of those types, some of them quite powerful. ”

He grinned. “I try my best to steer clear of them, and so far, I’ve mostly succeeded.

The boss of this area is exceedingly level-headed and fair.

His Secundo, who doesn’t especially like me, is one of the scariest vampires in existence.

Her mate terrifies me for completely different reasons, but the two seem to be following the Master’s rules and edicts, helping him bolster his territory, so it should be fine. ”

“The scariest vampire you know isn’t your biggest fan?”

He shrugged. “She wasn’t so powerful when we met, and I had the upper hand. She wasn’t treated well by her Master, and I didn’t…” He sighed. “Secrets I can’t tell, darling Aurélie.”

Their gazes met in a tempest of sensuality, sparks flying between them, and Axel’s dick went hard. His Aurélie lowered her gaze a few seconds, and then looked up to tell him, “I love hearing my name fall from your lips, but maybe that’s something you only say in private? My friends call me Aury.”

“I don’t want to be your friend, Aurélie.”

She nodded. “We were always destined to be more, though how you knew that when I was five, I don’t understand.”

“It was the love you showed for your mother, and your bravery. Also, your mind. Terrified as you were, and then in horrible pain after you were thrown across the dammed room and into the wall, you were still thinking logically. You dragged yourself up, supported your weight by your arms, and screamed at…” She still thought the assailant was male, and he wasn’t prepared to jar those memories loose just yet.

“Screamed to leave your mother alone. You were terrified and debilitated, but you stood and faced the monster.” He shook his head and said it again.

“Screamed at the evil creature to leave your mother alone.”

Her expression inexplicably softened, and understanding lit her face.

Her voice came quiet, steady. “I saw you as my savior. Not a monster. The opposite of a monster. You were brutal. You ripped his head off his body, but I wasn’t afraid of you. I saw you for what you were, and I appreciated you.”

He stared at her. Blinked.

The ground shifted beneath his feet, everything tilting. His entire analytical understanding of that night shattered like a mirror hit by a bullet.

She’d seen him . Not the monster. Not the killer.

In her eyes, he’d been the savior. The good guy defeating the bad guy, and he’d responded to that — the first person to ever see him as good.

His voice barely scraped out. “That’s…” He swallowed. Tried again. “That’s probably part of it, but…”

He rubbed the back of his neck. Shook his head. Sat back and just looked at her.

Like she’d just rewritten the math of his existence.

But that couldn’t be all of it. He worked through it out loud, “I felt a connection with you before… while I was running towards the house. I could hear what was happening from outside. When I entered, you’d climbed the creature, using your fists to beat…

” He’d been in Aurélie’s head, seen it through her eyes while he’d flown faster than human eyes could see.

Seen her bravery, her terror, her fierce love for her mother.

“My assignment was to kill the Celrau vampires in the area. They weren’t authorized to be there, didn’t have permission to exist in the city, much less hunt.”

And when he’d arrived, she’d seen him as her savior. She was fucking right, and it was time to move off shaky ground onto solid.

“You have to know I can scent the gun on you.”

She shrugged. “I mostly always have one with me, either on me or in a special purse. I have a small crossbody that puts it where it usually is on the bellyband I most often wear.”

“I’ll buy you some bullets that will take care of vampires and other supernaturals, and I’ll…”

He’d stopped her education at vampires. She needed to know more.

“Let’s back up a minute, to more things you can know now that you’re oathed. If vampires exist, what else do you think might be out there?”

“I mean, I know fairies exist, too, since I’m apparently descended from them. I guess werewolves probably exist?”

He nodded. “Regular bullets work best for the Fae, which aren’t exactly fairies.

For vampires, werewolves, and the like, you’ll need bullets with a decent amount of silver in them.

Pure silver bullets are too soft, but there are ways to get silver into them so they still work as expected.

The easiest way is silver flechettes in a shotgun shell, but the monster hunters have perfected nine-millimeter silver ammo, too. ”

“Monster hunters? People trying to kill you?”

Her concern was endearing, but he gave her the truth.

“Most won’t come after my kind unless we’re a danger to humans.

I don’t like that the Slayers exist, but I have to admit there’s a need for them.

When the most powerful of us go bad, it’s practically impossible for those under them in the hierarchy to take them out. ”

“Are you allowed to tell me how to kill vampires?”

“Killing the Celrau involves a wooden stake made of oak. There are wooden bullets, and shotgun shells with oak balls instead of steel, but we aren’t going to bother with them.

The Celrau haven’t been seen or scented in Chattanooga for quite some time.

The local vampire hunter is quite terrifying, which is a good thing for the humans who live here. ”

“And for your kind?”

“Beheading, or silver through the heart. For the strongest of us, both, and it’s best to remove the heart and destroy the brainstem, just to be sure.”

“How many kinds of vampire are there?”

“Three. Two kinds, mine included, can decide whether to be good or evil.” He could sense her anxiety rising, so he told her, “Here’s a truth.

With the advent of smartphones, so nearly everyone carries a camera around at all times, along with the security cameras at nearly every business and a good percentage of homes, we no longer hunt as we used to.

Most of us have people in-house, whom we pay to be our food.

Shapeshifters, mostly, since they can replenish their stores and we can feed from them several times per week. ”

She wanted to ask if we had sex with our food, but wasn’t sure how, so she said, “I know you can see the question. Please answer it.”

He suppressed his grin and answered the unasked question.

“Sex and feeding are inexplicably bound. You need to know another truth — vampires can’t catch diseases, nor can we pass them on so long as we’ve showered any microorganisms away.”

“And you can’t get me pregnant.”

“Correct.”

“What if I decide I want kids?”

She was assuming they were going to be an item for the rest of her life, which was his plan as well, so of course he’d considered this. “We’ll find a suitable father, genetically speaking, and you’ll be artificially inseminated. He won’t know of his child. It will be our child.”

“You’ll take his sperm without telling him.”

“I will.”

She shook her head. “That’s a discussion for another day, but I won’t do that to someone.”

“Then we’ll figure out a solution that works for your morals, but you won’t be fucking anyone besides me once we’re an item. If you want to get that out of your system, you need to act fast.”

She narrowed her eyes and gave a shake of her head anchored in fierce determination. “I told you I was waiting for you.” Before she could think it through, she blurted out, “You told me you’d show me your memories of that night. Do it now.”